Giving the gift of time

v, the national youth volunteering charity began a national campaign to encourage people to give the gift of time this Christmas.

In these difficult financial times, people are looking for less expensive gifts, yet very few think of giving a gift that is totally free - their time.

The aim was to get people to pledge to their friends and families things such as 'taking the dog for a walk', 'teaching you how to play football', or 'making you a mix tape of your favourite songs'.

Ideally, the activities would appeal to people's interests and skills so that they could offer a meaningful and well-done present.

For three days in the lead up to Christmas, staff and volunteers from Solent Youth Action manned a stall in Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth to spread this word.

In this time, over eighty people of all ages pledged their time to dedicate some effort to cleaning, washing up, massages, baking cakes and more...

Each person had their pledge written on a Time Token, requiring their signature, which was then placed in a silver envelope and tied up with ribbon so that it would not look out of place under the Christmas tree.

Off the back of this campaign several people were interested in dedicating some time to help others outside of their friendship circles and families and volunteering in areas such as youth mentoring, dog walking and IT coaching. These people will be sent details of organisations they can volunteer with.

Solent Youth Action runs activities like this throughout the year. If this sounds like something you'd like to be involved with next time, please get in touch!